Why use a Twitter #hash tag to funnel questions for the legendary Helen Thomas? Because it’s hip, that’s why…and because I’ll have a really enjoyable time trying to explain it to her!

Ok ok, I’ll tell you the truth. Last night I spoke at DC Media Makers, a meet up of people who promote peer learning and digital literacy in DC. I talked for a few minutes about my work for MTV  (USTREAM caught it live) and why I needed new and compelling content to take EricaAmerica to the next level.

Helen and I have been friends for almost two years now. We see each other sporadically, normally when I call and ask for a coffee or a drink to catch up. Each time I go prepared with a list of questions spanning topics of history, war and peace, working in Washington and being the first woman in the Press Corp. In short, I don’t want to waste her time. So I am always trying to make the most of those meetings. (Check this piece out I wrote about an evening with Helen.)

So here I am, now working on a project to capture some of her thoughts, her experience and her wisdom for the Web 2.0 community. Through this video series, I hope to open up a new side for the world to see of Helen, a side that wants to explain, educate and describe what she saw over the last 60 years in Washington.

After I showed the video to the group at DC Media Makers, they had a ton of substantive ideas for me. From production to lighting to ways to crowd-source the Internet for questions, the conversation was dynamic. I always enjoy those meetings and walked away with some great ideas. Thanks to @acarvin, I am now using the #AskHelen hash tag on Twtiter to encourage people to shout out their quesitons. If you are new to the hash tag or twitter, all you need to do is include #AskHelen after your question in your Tweet. It will be funnelled into a page on Twitter that will group all of the questions together.

Let’s see if it works!

@EricaAmerica